Stuck In A Moment
by angela evans
Summary: They’re trusting fate to make the right choice. It is, after all, what brought them together. Fair Winds and Following Seas


**Stuck In A Moment**

**Author:** Angela Evans  
**Feedback:** As always.  
**Distribution:** my lj, or ask me  
**Disclaimer:** Not mine. But I do accept gifts.  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Spoilers:** "Fair Winds and Following Seas"  
**Summary: **How did the coin land? Some possibilities.  
**Classification:** H/M, Futurefic  
**Thanks:** Karen for being the first to R&R and Em Mindelan, who's Alias fic "Divergences" was my inspiration  
**Author's Note: **So this was going to be an alternate worlds fic,where we start with one situation that requires a choice, which leads to an outcome and so on and the fic covers all the different streams of outcomes. Kind of like the movie "Sliding Doors". Only that got too complicated, so I just wrote up what was going to be the epilogue. I may still do the streams one day.  
**Muse-ic:** "The Last Laugh" – Mark Knopfler, "Cannonball" & "The Blower's Daughter" – Damien Rice, "Kathleen" – Josh Ritter, "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" – U2, "Bleed to Love Her" & "Destiny Rules" – Fleetwood Mac, "Trouble", "Shelter", & "Forever My Friend" – Ray LaMontagne

_It's just a moment  
This time will pass  
__- U2, "Stuck in a Moment (That You Can't Get Out Of)"_

Heads or tails.

London or San Diego.

For this to work, one of them has to give up their career. Maybe it will be him; maybe it will be her.

If it's heads, he'll be promoted to Captain, and be on the fast track for Judge Advocate General.

Tails, he'll follow her to San Diego, where she'll lead her own staff. A career high.

But who makes the sacrifice?

Right now, they're trusting fate to make the right choice. It is, after all, what brought them together.

_Flip, flip, flip_…each revolution brings their fate closer.

Inevitably, there will be a decision, and they will have to live with it.

Maybe it lands tails up.  
She goes to San Diego, and he follows once he resigns his commission.  
They're married in an old mission church, and she's given away by the Admiral.  
They move into a house with a white picket fence, and he joins a private practice.  
After a few years, he starts to miss the Navy, and flying.

Maybe he resents her for the loss of his career.  
After a messy divorce and he moves back to Washington, where he gets a position as a flying instructor.  
She focuses on her career, which earns her a promotion or two, and a reputation as a steel-balled bitch.  
But they're both lonely.

Perhaps after several years, she runs into him while she's in DC for a case.  
They have dinner for old times' sake, and manage not to kill each other.  
One of them (they'll argue over who it was) suggests they do this again.  
He flies out to San Diego to see her, and they end up making love in his hotel room.  
Soon after, they remarry.

Or they get married before they move to San Diego.  
She's still given away by the Admiral.  
He never regrets giving up his career for her.  
And then one day she comes home from her annual physical with news.

It could be bad news.  
The doctor found something when she did a vaginal exam.  
After an ultrasound and some other tests, it's confirmed – she has ovarian cancer.  
They vow to battle it, to survive.  
She undergoes chemo, an operation.  
But in the end, it's too little, too late.  
She dies and leaves him heart broken, with nothing.

Or, it's good news.  
They found their four percent solution – she's pregnant.  
Neither will admit it – they're too busy being deliriously happy – but they are a bit scared at becoming parents.  
He figures out a way to make it work, so that she doesn't have to give up her career. After all, men have been fathers for ages and have not had to give up anything work-wise.  
It's a girl, whom they name Sarah.  
Sarah quickly has her father wrapped around her tiny finger.  
Mac isn't on the fast track she once was, but they're happy.  
A little family of three.

Of course, it could just a easily land heads.  
Then he would go to London a Captain.  
They could get married in a little chapel in the English countryside.  
It takes a while, but they make it work, with her teaching criminal law at the American School.  
Until the day she gets a phone call from the MPs.

He was wounded – shot in the leg by a sailor he was prosecuting.  
It seems the Lieutenant became rather despondent during the trial and somehow grabbed an MP's gun, getting off a few shots before he was tackled to the floor.  
She rushes to the hospital, to his bedside.  
Doctors in white coats tell them that he's fortunate; the bullet was inches from the femoral artery.  
He could have bled to death, but he'll only have a slight limp.  
They thank God it wasn't worse, and count their blessings.

Alternately, she could get a different call.  
In all the pandemonium of trying to subdue the crazed Lieutenant, it takes too long for help to get to him.  
The bullet, which nicked the femoral artery, causes him to bleed out.  
She collapses in her classroom.  
She's taken to the hospital, where they discover she's one month pregnant.  
Bud and Harriet fly out to help her with arrangements, and packing up, a difficult process.  
He's buried in Arlington, and she goes home with a flag.  
But seven months later she gives birth to a beautiful boy with his father's eyes.  
Harmon Rabb III – he's her reason to get up in the morning.  
She misses his father terribly, but she'll always have a part of him in their son.

But maybe they take a leave to get married in Washington.  
Bud and Harriet are Best Man and Matron of Honor; Little AJ is the ring bearer.  
She gets the obligatory sword smack on the bum.  
Sergei surprises everyone and makes it for the reception.  
They return to London, where they are happy newlyweds.  
A little while later, they get news that Gen. Cresswell has retired; and that he's on the short list to fill the JAG chair.

They wait for news of confirmation.  
She even calls Webb to see if he knows anything.  
Webb doesn't, which is odd. He used to know everything.  
Before the official call comes, Coates rings them to let them down easy.  
Even Vukovic has condolences.  
He's angry for a while, until one day he realizes he never intended to make JAG.  
Let Sturgis have it. He's got her, and that's all he needs.

But it doesn't have to be that way.  
This time it's the SecNav, calling with congratulations and slightly amused – after all, this is Harmon Rabb, the maverick lawyer, who's been promoted to Judge Advocate General.  
They return to Washington, this time to a big house in Georgetown.  
Their years in London have turned him into an excellent commanding officer, and he outshines everyone's expectations.  
And just when it looks like it can't get any better, they have kids. By invitro and surrogates, but the babies are theirs.  
They have four, two boys, two girls: Catherine, David, Jimmy, and Sarah.  
The first three go into the Navy and Marines. Sarah decides to produce television.  
Of course, the day comes when Cathy marries Little AJ Roberts, who isn't so little anymore, and they all become the Rabb-Roberts clan.  
He and she live happily ever after.

There are many ways it could end.

Some happy, some sad, some in the middle.

But it will end.

The coin will tumble back towards Earth and land on one side or the other.

Heads.

Tails.

In some ways, it doesn't really matter.

In any case, they will be living their lives.

Right now they're waiting for the coin to drop.

But eventually, they won't be stuck in the moment anymore.

_fin_


End file.
